00:00:06
ian and sally lawrence high achievers
00:00:10
ian had learned to fly and sally had
00:00:12
worked her way up from pa to md ian
00:00:15
lawrence was a pilot and so was i and i
00:00:18
actually introduced them to each other
00:00:20
she was basically looking for a partner
00:00:22
and i said well i know somebody who
00:00:25
i thought at the time would be ideal
00:00:28
john bolting a father figure in sally's
00:00:31
life thought them a perfect match
00:00:33
but a car crash would claim the life of
00:00:35
sally lawrence leave her husband
00:00:37
apparently injured but being treated in
00:00:38
hospital
00:00:40
detectives arrive at his bedside it was
00:00:42
quite clear at that time that his
00:00:44
injuries weren't as severe as first
00:00:47
portrayed to me i then made a decision
00:00:49
that mr lawrence would be arrested on
00:00:51
suspicion of murder
00:00:53
had an airline pilot forgotten that cars
00:00:55
can tell investigators much about how
00:00:58
they've been driven data recorders are
00:01:00
contained within many modern vehicles
00:01:03
so you end up with windows snapshots of
00:01:05
the crash
00:01:07
what would a vehicle's digital record
00:01:09
tell detectives searching for the truth
00:01:11
in the case of mr mrs lawrence
00:01:15
[Music]
00:01:22
[Music]
00:01:32
when ian lawrence and sally perks met it
00:01:35
seemed that two soul mates had come
00:01:36
across each other
00:01:39
ian lawrence was
00:01:41
seemingly a very successful man he had
00:01:44
been an airline pilot
00:01:46
they he was a successful businessman
00:01:49
sally had worked her way up from
00:01:52
being pa to the managing director at the
00:01:55
chemical spills company and she was
00:01:57
doing particularly well
00:01:59
[Music]
00:02:00
very very bubbly
00:02:02
incredible enthusiasm for life
00:02:05
always smiling you know and uh always
00:02:08
looked on the bright side of everything
00:02:10
no matter what it was she was always on
00:02:12
the on the plus side you know
00:02:14
nothing was ever half empty with sully
00:02:16
you know and yeah i thought the world of
00:02:18
her
00:02:19
john bolting wanted her to be happy and
00:02:22
he thought he knew the right man for her
00:02:25
she was basically looking for a partner
00:02:27
and i said well
00:02:28
you know i know somebody who
00:02:30
i thought at the time would be ideal
00:02:34
when sally was introduced to it and they
00:02:36
got on really well and
00:02:39
quite soon were married in a very lavish
00:02:42
extravagant wedding
00:02:44
i do remember her asking me if i would
00:02:47
go to church and give her away and i
00:02:50
said yes absolutely i would providing
00:02:53
she asked her father first because
00:02:55
they'd fallen out and i'm very happy to
00:02:57
say that she did ask her dad and he did
00:03:00
say yes and he did come and give her
00:03:01
away
00:03:02
and it was quite um
00:03:04
quite a doe
00:03:07
they got married instant james the
00:03:08
greater church in leicester
00:03:11
and uh
00:03:12
they were
00:03:13
somewhere around about between 200 and
00:03:16
250 people it's a big church a lot of
00:03:18
people in there
00:03:19
they've splashed out on the reception
00:03:21
and it's really sort of lavish
00:03:23
celebration and everything looks
00:03:25
absolutely fine two people very much in
00:03:27
love big wedding good job good future
00:03:31
they led off fifteen thousand quid for
00:03:33
the fireworks i mean the display went on
00:03:35
for about 40 minutes something like that
00:03:38
it was quite extraordinary i've never
00:03:40
seen anything like it
00:03:41
[Music]
00:03:44
so sally and ian began married life with
00:03:46
a bang and for a few years the marriage
00:03:49
sparkled they lived in a home which
00:03:51
sally had bought the couple had a baby
00:03:54
they are parents who are older than
00:03:57
perhaps many
00:03:58
he's 40 she's in their late 30s
00:04:01
but they don't on this child and
00:04:03
children can sometimes have a good or a
00:04:06
bad effect on relationships it seems in
00:04:08
this case it was a good effect because
00:04:10
it bound them together more and they
00:04:12
both loved being
00:04:13
parents
00:04:15
sally's career was going from strength
00:04:16
to strength her boss and mentor handed
00:04:19
over the reins of the business to her
00:04:21
and she began running the company she
00:04:24
absolutely agreed she took to the job
00:04:26
like a doctor walter i couldn't believe
00:04:28
it how good she was
00:04:30
but for ian lawrence things weren't
00:04:33
going quite so well
00:04:34
in 2007 that seems to be the beginning
00:04:38
where things started to go wrong for ian
00:04:41
lawrence and he was
00:04:43
sacked from his job as an airline pilot
00:04:46
and that seemed to set in motion a kind
00:04:49
of a downward spiral it's from this
00:04:51
point that the relationship really
00:04:53
started to go downhill and to turn sour
00:05:00
she told me she would have confined an
00:05:01
awful lot in me
00:05:03
and it was it was apparent to me that
00:05:05
things were were going really really
00:05:08
wrong
00:05:08
ian became moody short-tempered jealous
00:05:11
perhaps of sally's continued success
00:05:14
the first cracks began to appear in this
00:05:18
perfect looking life and marriage when
00:05:20
he had lost his job as a pilot
00:05:22
and him losing his job coincided with
00:05:25
sally
00:05:26
being on a period of very
00:05:29
swift advancement in hers
00:05:31
she told me
00:05:32
things that were not right i knew that
00:05:35
they were not you know
00:05:37
sharing a room together
00:05:39
i knew that she was spending a lot of
00:05:40
time away with a family in derbyshire
00:05:43
so you've kind of got this reversal
00:05:45
you've got ian being in the position of
00:05:47
being the breadwinner being the person
00:05:49
with the glamorous job
00:05:51
he loses that and at the same time
00:05:54
sally is on her way up to a position of
00:05:56
power
00:05:57
quite often in some relationships that
00:06:00
look
00:06:01
almost perfect from the outside things
00:06:04
are very very different behind the
00:06:06
scenes and where you have this almost
00:06:08
sometimes you might think it's like a
00:06:10
managed vision of what the family is
00:06:13
that usually means that there's somebody
00:06:15
in the background who's very controlling
00:06:17
and i think probably that ian lawrence
00:06:20
was a very controlling individual
00:06:22
[Music]
00:06:26
there is clear evidence that was the
00:06:28
case
00:06:29
we were in a local public on to have
00:06:32
a business lunch and she was telling me
00:06:34
that she was really frightened of him
00:06:36
and that um you know
00:06:38
she was frightened of what he would do
00:06:41
as time went on i think those cracks got
00:06:44
really big and although that they were
00:06:46
living together still they were living
00:06:49
separately so the marriage was falling
00:06:53
apart right in front of his eyes
00:06:57
as the marriage began to fail so ian
00:06:59
tried to reinvent himself as an
00:07:01
entrepreneur he started a number of
00:07:03
small businesses
00:07:05
he would again appear to be a great
00:07:07
success
00:07:08
sally would be impressed
00:07:10
he then set up some businesses and
00:07:13
latterly
00:07:14
he was running a trailer business
00:07:16
locally in leicester
00:07:17
he genuinely thought that the marriage
00:07:20
was worth saving and he wanted to save
00:07:21
it
00:07:22
and he also had a
00:07:24
share in a go-kart racing
00:07:27
business which was based at leicester
00:07:29
airport
00:07:30
this is very much a man who wants to be
00:07:32
in control this was a man who
00:07:36
insisted that his wife
00:07:38
fall back in love with him again which
00:07:40
clearly wasn't going to happen
00:07:45
all of his business ventures failed
00:07:47
friends suggested to ian that he was
00:07:49
trying too hard he was noticeably
00:07:52
changed from the high-flying successful
00:07:54
pilot with a confident way
00:07:57
it's pretty
00:07:58
clear to see that this was a term for
00:08:01
the worst for their relationship
00:08:02
[Music]
00:08:04
one of the things that that controlling
00:08:06
people really do not deal with very well
00:08:09
at all
00:08:10
is when they are challenged and usually
00:08:13
their home life their family their
00:08:16
children their financial status
00:08:19
is is the way they perceive themselves
00:08:22
in the world and when that starts to
00:08:25
crack
00:08:26
they can get quite panic stricken
00:08:30
as time went by sally could no longer
00:08:32
face living within the relationship had
00:08:34
broken down she wanted to move on with
00:08:36
her life
00:08:38
and it becomes apparent that
00:08:40
the relationship had broken down between
00:08:43
ian and sally
00:08:47
in 2012 sully actually
00:08:50
filed for divorce and it was that
00:08:52
divorce that seems to have unsettled
00:08:55
things at that point sally had commenced
00:08:58
another relationship with another man
00:09:01
she wanted a new relationship and that
00:09:04
would have been
00:09:05
incendiary for somebody like ian
00:09:08
lawrence
00:09:09
at least at this point there was the
00:09:11
facade that they were still together
00:09:14
that he was still in control and in a
00:09:16
lot of ways he did still have a lot of
00:09:19
control over her because they were still
00:09:20
living together but she was going to
00:09:23
leave
00:09:24
and that would have escalated things
00:09:27
dramatically
00:09:31
she was looking to move on and just
00:09:33
start a new life away from here
00:09:36
things between ian and sally get so bad
00:09:39
that she asks him to leave the house and
00:09:42
he refuses
00:09:44
stays there but they are
00:09:46
small intents and purposes living
00:09:48
separately under the same roof they'd
00:09:50
been living separate lives for for over
00:09:52
a year although living in the same house
00:09:55
and they were sharing custody of their
00:09:57
10 year old son
00:09:59
the relationship was
00:10:01
stressful
00:10:03
for sally what had begun as the perfect
00:10:05
marriage
00:10:06
had turned into a prison she felt she
00:10:08
couldn't escape ian was refusing to
00:10:11
leave her home and refusing to accept
00:10:13
that the marriage was over i said at the
00:10:16
time to sully
00:10:17
i said don't worry all bullies are
00:10:19
cowards i said the chances are he won't
00:10:21
do anything but
00:10:23
i couldn't have been
00:10:24
more wrong
00:10:33
living under the same roof but leading
00:10:34
separate lives tensions were high in the
00:10:36
lawrence household and sally was
00:10:38
desperate to move on
00:10:40
witnessing her one-time high-achieving
00:10:42
husband reduced to a frightening wreck
00:10:45
she would have seen first hand the
00:10:46
escalation in his anxiety and his anger
00:10:51
and his resentment and she would have
00:10:53
been
00:10:54
very well aware that
00:10:56
perhaps he was becoming quite
00:10:59
threatening and it was probably quite an
00:11:01
intimidating atmosphere in that house
00:11:03
during this time
00:11:05
months after sally had told ian of a new
00:11:07
relationship ian lawrence was still
00:11:09
refusing to accept that the marriage was
00:11:11
over and was unrealistically hoping to
00:11:14
convince sally to stay with him
00:11:16
ian has the aim to try to patch things
00:11:19
up try and make the marriage
00:11:21
the relationship and the family work but
00:11:24
sally doesn't think that's the way to go
00:11:26
she doesn't think that that can be done
00:11:28
she was looking to move on and just
00:11:31
start a new life away from here
00:11:33
telling ian once and for all that there
00:11:35
was no future in the marriage was to be
00:11:37
the trigger behind what appeared to be a
00:11:39
car accident
00:11:40
on a road in leicestershire england in
00:11:43
october 2012.
00:11:45
ian in the background was
00:11:49
refusing
00:11:50
absolutely refusing to let go his whole
00:11:53
identity was tied up in this family his
00:11:56
whole status in the world and there was
00:11:59
no way
00:12:00
in his head that he was going to let her
00:12:04
as he saw it do this to him
00:12:09
no one but he knew
00:12:11
that ian had set a date for murder the
00:12:14
divorce proceedings were ongoing uh we
00:12:16
found out that the decree nissi was was
00:12:18
due to be served on monday the 8th of
00:12:20
october while sally planned her life
00:12:23
without him ian lawrence was planning
00:12:24
how to get what he felt he deserved
00:12:26
which in his case meant the proceeds
00:12:28
from the sale of the shared house
00:12:31
a house he had not paid for
00:12:33
the house was at the time valued at
00:12:37
three hundred thousand pound there's a
00:12:38
lot of equity in it that was all in
00:12:40
sally's name he had nothing and
00:12:42
they'd agreed terms and then a couple of
00:12:44
days before what one day before um he he
00:12:48
changed the terms and said he wanted
00:12:50
half of the house
00:12:51
and she said no he wasn't getting it
00:12:54
sally had texted her close friends
00:12:57
and her daughters and just raising some
00:13:00
concerns
00:13:01
around ian's demeanor he was demanding
00:13:04
more money out of the house
00:13:06
she was saying in some of her text
00:13:08
messages that she felt threatened she
00:13:10
didn't want to be alone in the house
00:13:12
with him
00:13:13
one of them said she'd locked herself in
00:13:15
her bedroom
00:13:17
she feared that he would actually kill
00:13:19
her one day
00:13:20
this is one of the really big red flags
00:13:23
that we see when this kind of thing
00:13:26
happens that the victim actually
00:13:29
foretells what could possibly happen to
00:13:32
them
00:13:34
ian was fixating on a date
00:13:36
october 8th 2012
00:13:38
the day of the decree nissi the day he
00:13:41
would get his hands on a family home and
00:13:43
an insurance payout
00:13:45
but only if sally was dead
00:13:48
sally also had a life insurance
00:13:50
and that would have given in 250 000
00:13:54
so
00:13:54
when we're looking at potential motives
00:13:58
for murder
00:13:59
there aren't that many but two of the
00:14:02
main ones are
00:14:03
jealousy and greed
00:14:05
and they're both motives that ian would
00:14:08
have had
00:14:10
and i think he felt he was running out
00:14:12
of time and he needed to put his plan
00:14:15
into action he wouldn't have wanted
00:14:17
sally to be with anybody else and then
00:14:19
the financial side that he would gain
00:14:23
through sally dying
00:14:25
before the decree in ec then that was
00:14:27
substantial to him as well it's a
00:14:29
surprising fact
00:14:31
more often than not in these cases
00:14:35
where somebody absolutely refuses to let
00:14:37
go and their behavior starts to escalate
00:14:40
that they may make the decision that
00:14:42
they're going to kill the person who
00:14:44
they see as causing all the angst in
00:14:46
their life
00:14:48
once ian lawrence had decided upon his
00:14:51
plan sally's fate was sealed there was
00:14:53
no going back then it was going to
00:14:55
happen
00:14:57
and lawrence's weapon of choice would be
00:15:00
a car
00:15:01
as a pilot he felt he had the skills to
00:15:03
maneuver an engine the way that he
00:15:05
wished
00:15:06
ian lawrence made the decision that he
00:15:09
was going to kill sally and he started
00:15:13
to plan for that and it seems that what
00:15:15
he decided he was going to do was make
00:15:18
her death look like an accident so that
00:15:20
he could protect himself
00:15:22
he devised a plan to actually crash the
00:15:26
car into the tree
00:15:29
on the road near where they lived iam's
00:15:31
practical man and he was an intelligent
00:15:33
man and he put a lot of thought into his
00:15:36
plan
00:15:38
the car crash he was planning would
00:15:39
happen on the ghatri road in odb
00:15:42
leicestershire
00:15:44
he decided upon the road where he was
00:15:46
going to do it picked out the tree that
00:15:48
he was going to hit done some dummy runs
00:15:50
or reconnaissance runs
00:15:52
to
00:15:53
to see what it was like there work out
00:15:56
the time of day when it was best to do
00:15:58
it
00:15:59
the murder spot picked he then needed to
00:16:01
manipulate things to ensure that sally
00:16:03
would be in his car
00:16:05
the weekend before the divorce would be
00:16:07
finalized their child was on a school
00:16:09
trip and this would mean that ian and
00:16:12
sally would be left in the house without
00:16:14
him and that's something sally felt she
00:16:16
couldn't face and didn't want to happen
00:16:18
so she
00:16:19
made arrangements to go and stay indeed
00:16:22
with a boyfriend
00:16:24
she had her overnight bag packed
00:16:26
she had a handbag with a purse and a
00:16:28
phone all ready to go on the back seat
00:16:30
of her car
00:16:32
and that would have been around between
00:16:34
5 and six pm on that saturday evening
00:16:38
sally was ready to drive away
00:16:40
in her car the other difficulty that he
00:16:43
had was getting sally actually to get
00:16:46
into the car because it was so old and
00:16:49
so grubby
00:16:50
she
00:16:51
never went in it she wouldn't go in it
00:16:53
she refused to go at it most times
00:16:55
so he had to come up with a plan that
00:16:57
was going to put her in the passenger
00:16:59
seat of that car so that he could do
00:17:02
what he wants to do
00:17:04
but she didn't get in to her car and
00:17:07
drive away and some of her friends
00:17:09
thought that that was very unusual she
00:17:12
actually got into his car so he must
00:17:15
have somehow
00:17:17
and we don't know how got her to get
00:17:20
into his car
00:17:22
sally's car was very clean and tidy
00:17:24
pristine inside very well kept ian's car
00:17:28
was more like a workshop
00:17:30
it was full of junk full of rubbish
00:17:32
sally was always well dressed and her
00:17:35
daughters would say that she would have
00:17:37
never got in that car voluntarily in
00:17:40
which i don't know how he ever got her
00:17:41
into that car it's an old banger and i
00:17:44
just bought her a new jaguar so i don't
00:17:46
know what happened there i never will no
00:17:48
i don't suppose
00:17:50
he may have frightened her into getting
00:17:52
the car he may have told some plausible
00:17:54
story
00:17:55
whether he she was coerced whether she
00:17:58
was forced we do not know only ian
00:18:00
lawrence knows the answer to that
00:18:01
question but she did get into the car
00:18:04
and that was the last time anyone saw
00:18:07
her alive
00:18:08
but what we do know is that she left her
00:18:11
home address in the passenger seat of
00:18:13
that peugeot and was then driven along
00:18:15
towards the racecourse and then along
00:18:18
stoughton road towards the airport
00:18:21
[Applause]
00:18:23
he had adapted the car to suit his needs
00:18:25
for the crash he had planned
00:18:27
so at the time ian lawrence had a maroon
00:18:31
red
00:18:32
peugeot 406 estate
00:18:34
i think at the time it would have been
00:18:36
about 10 years old
00:18:38
had a private number plate on it which
00:18:40
felt windy which um
00:18:43
alluded to
00:18:44
his flying days i think some of his
00:18:46
friends called in that as his nickname
00:18:48
it was so it's a big big side estate car
00:18:53
he had her in the position that he
00:18:55
wanted with him in control in an area he
00:18:58
knew intimately
00:19:00
he had a go-kart track just up the road
00:19:03
we used to go from home to every day
00:19:05
so that's the route that he took with
00:19:07
sully in the car
00:19:09
as he drove towards where he knew he was
00:19:13
going to crash the car
00:19:15
he suddenly leaned over
00:19:17
and he unclicked
00:19:19
sally's seatbelt
00:19:21
he had to wait until it was too late for
00:19:24
sally to realize what was happening but
00:19:26
he had to get that seat belt off of her
00:19:28
before they hit the tree or else it
00:19:30
could have saved her and he then put
00:19:32
himself into the brace position
00:19:35
and drove straight into a tree at 50
00:19:37
miles an hour
00:19:42
in a collision of a magnitude of 50
00:19:44
miles an hour there's a huge amount of
00:19:46
energy that's dispersed in a collision
00:19:49
if you remove all of the restraint
00:19:51
systems in a vehicle that are designed
00:19:53
to protect you the likelihood of injury
00:19:55
goes up
00:19:56
incredibly
00:19:58
and therefore your likelihood of
00:20:00
suffering fatal injuries are increased
00:20:02
greatly this was a
00:20:04
high impact collision with a motor
00:20:06
vehicle and a very large tree the car
00:20:10
had an impacted uh almost square on but
00:20:13
mainly on the on the passenger side and
00:20:15
the the hole at the front of the car had
00:20:17
crumpled up so it was a significant
00:20:21
impact
00:20:23
if you're not wearing a seat belt when
00:20:25
the vehicle stops moving your inertia
00:20:28
causes you to travel forwards
00:20:30
in the case where a seat belt isn't
00:20:31
being worn and there's a sudden
00:20:33
deceleration of the vehicle the occupant
00:20:35
moves forward and you can often see them
00:20:37
striking the windscreen and you end up
00:20:39
with damage to the inside of the
00:20:41
windscreen pushing it outwards
00:20:44
and that was how sally was found
00:20:46
she died on the scene probably aware in
00:20:48
her last few seconds what was happening
00:20:51
it would have been quite a scary moment
00:20:53
particularly in the last few seconds at
00:20:55
a speed of 50 miles an hour closing in
00:20:58
on a tree
00:20:59
would have been quite scary
00:21:03
the airline pilot had used his skills to
00:21:05
fatal effect
00:21:07
and not without risk to himself
00:21:09
the simple act of driving a car
00:21:11
deliberately into a tree
00:21:13
at 50 miles an hour without breaking is
00:21:15
something i think many people would find
00:21:17
very difficult to do
00:21:19
it's a high risk strategy driving a car
00:21:23
into a tree
00:21:24
with the hope that it's going to go so
00:21:26
perfectly well that you're going to
00:21:28
survive and the other person isn't but
00:21:32
it still shows a very reckless nature he
00:21:35
was willing
00:21:36
for it to go wrong he felt so strongly
00:21:39
he was probably willing to die if that's
00:21:42
what happened but the important thing
00:21:45
was that she did
00:21:47
i found out the next day the next
00:21:49
morning
00:21:50
it was absolutely horrendous i was with
00:21:53
my best friend and
00:21:55
i just went into shock i think
00:21:58
i think it was about our past midnight
00:22:01
so going into the 7th of october when i
00:22:03
received a call
00:22:05
from one of my detective inspectors
00:22:07
the passenger in the vehicle
00:22:10
that has collided with a tree
00:22:12
had died at the scene and the driver of
00:22:14
the vehicle who was a male uh had been
00:22:17
taken to hospital and appeared to be
00:22:19
unconscious um and had
00:22:22
on on the face of it some trauma and
00:22:25
some potential brain injuries
00:22:28
ian lawrence stood to own the family
00:22:30
home outright and to benefit from a 250
00:22:33
000 pounds insurance payout he had
00:22:35
survived the car crash and was going to
00:22:37
be rushed to hospital whilst sally lay
00:22:39
dead in the passenger seat
00:22:41
had he committed the perfect murder
00:22:45
ian lawrence's story after the accident
00:22:49
was a kind of a low risk strategy really
00:22:51
because he pretended that he couldn't
00:22:53
remember anything if you can't remember
00:22:56
anything you can't be picked up on lies
00:23:06
through meticulous planning ian lawrence
00:23:09
had murdered his wife to investigate as
00:23:11
his own injuries seemed oddly
00:23:13
superficial
00:23:15
in this case there was a huge disparity
00:23:17
in the injuries suffered by both of the
00:23:19
occupants in the vehicle the driver
00:23:21
suffering relatively low level injuries
00:23:24
for an impact of this type and the front
00:23:26
seat passenger sustaining fatal injuries
00:23:29
the police and the paramedics arrived at
00:23:32
the scene
00:23:33
and i think there were suspicions
00:23:36
straight away especially with the
00:23:38
paramedics there were some comments
00:23:41
around whether or not he was feigning
00:23:44
some of his injuries and feigning
00:23:46
unconsciousness
00:23:48
ian lawrence was pretending that he was
00:23:51
unconscious but he he wasn't acting that
00:23:54
out awfully well and the paramedics
00:23:56
would be very used to seeing people who
00:23:58
who really are unconscious and they
00:24:02
told of their suspicions to the police
00:24:05
the fire brigade had attended and had
00:24:08
actually cut the occupants out of the
00:24:10
vehicle because the doors wouldn't open
00:24:12
that was the severity of the impact the
00:24:14
first two people to arrive on the scene
00:24:17
one was a retired police officer and the
00:24:19
other one was a retired fireman
00:24:21
and they knew straight away that
00:24:23
something was wrong he was feigning
00:24:25
being
00:24:26
unconscious
00:24:28
and they they knew that
00:24:30
something was completely wrong the
00:24:32
condition that i was being told of the
00:24:35
driver was that he was
00:24:38
in and out of consciousness
00:24:40
was displaying signs of
00:24:43
trauma
00:24:44
but nothing visibly physically so he had
00:24:48
no cuts no apparent broken bones
00:24:52
despite ian's odd behavior and the
00:24:54
reservations of paramedics on the scene
00:24:56
he was admitted into hospital he had
00:24:58
been in an accident and seemed to be
00:25:00
showing signs of a severe head injury
00:25:04
he was displaying symptoms equivalent to
00:25:07
a seven on the glasgow coma scale
00:25:10
so the glasgow coma scale is used to
00:25:14
ascertain somebody's consciousness and
00:25:16
alertness when they've been involved in
00:25:18
some kind of
00:25:20
trauma usually head trauma
00:25:23
and they rate from 15 being fully
00:25:25
conscious fully mobile down to three
00:25:28
which means you'd be lying there in a
00:25:30
coma and and probably going to die
00:25:33
so to be scored as a seven by medical
00:25:36
experts at that time would put
00:25:39
mr lawrence with some severe head
00:25:41
injuries
00:25:42
that on the face of it weren't apparent
00:25:45
there didn't appear to be any bruising
00:25:47
any swelling or any lacerations that
00:25:50
would cause him to have a glasgow coma
00:25:53
scale of
00:25:54
seven at the hospital ian lawrence
00:25:57
continued to appear to feign injury
00:26:00
by this time the nurses caring for him
00:26:03
had become suspicious
00:26:06
later on a nurse contacted us in the
00:26:08
incident room saying she wasn't
00:26:10
comfortable with a patient that she
00:26:12
treated that evening and believed that
00:26:15
he may have been feigning some of his
00:26:17
injuries
00:26:19
elsewhere another aspect of ian's story
00:26:21
was unravelling so when the police
00:26:23
started their investigation they were
00:26:26
able to find out a lot of information
00:26:29
and i don't think people realize quite
00:26:31
how sophisticated
00:26:33
these crash scene analysis are
00:26:35
especially with the computerization of
00:26:37
cars and the knowledge we have about
00:26:40
things like tire marks
00:26:43
from looking at the scene they weren't
00:26:46
satisfied that this was a pure accident
00:26:49
they noticed that the roads were dry
00:26:52
the bend on which the accident happened
00:26:55
was not a severe bend in fact it would
00:26:57
have been drivable
00:26:58
to upwards of 70 miles an hour on and
00:27:01
that would be to remain on the same side
00:27:03
of the carriageway
00:27:06
it became clear to investigators that
00:27:08
there was no clear cause for the crash
00:27:10
and further anomalies were appearing all
00:27:12
of the time
00:27:14
mark crouch is a crash scene
00:27:16
investigator who examines cases just
00:27:19
like this one when a tyre slows it will
00:27:23
lock those kind of marks
00:27:25
can be seen on a road surface but there
00:27:28
weren't any found on this
00:27:30
occasion
00:27:31
when a vehicle
00:27:32
leaves the road particularly on mud
00:27:34
grass verge you can get quite a
00:27:36
distinctive mark where the tire drags
00:27:40
the grass drags the mud along and you
00:27:42
would expect that to happen even with
00:27:44
quite a low level of braking what was
00:27:46
found on the verge in this case was a
00:27:47
rolling tire mark
00:27:49
that wheel didn't lock out
00:27:52
the car had gone into the tree and had
00:27:55
not slowed down and they were also able
00:27:59
to show that there were lots of other
00:28:02
places that the car could have come to a
00:28:04
stop there were escape routes either
00:28:06
side of the tree there was a farm gate
00:28:09
entrance that would have offered little
00:28:11
resistance if you'd wanted to drive
00:28:13
through that if your brakes had failed
00:28:14
you'd have gone into a field and
00:28:16
gradually just coasted to a stop so then
00:28:18
we looked at the actual tyre tracks and
00:28:20
and the road that led to the point of
00:28:23
impact
00:28:24
and there was no apparent skid marks
00:28:28
on the tarmac
00:28:29
further evidence emerged as detectives
00:28:31
dug deeper
00:28:33
the seat belt clasp the retainer of the
00:28:36
driver was protruding upwards and that
00:28:39
is a sign that that has been in an
00:28:42
impact and there was abrasions on the
00:28:45
seat belt itself consistent with it
00:28:47
being in place at point of impact the
00:28:50
passenger side
00:28:52
the clasp retaining claps was sitting
00:28:54
down in the normal position indicating
00:28:57
that the seat belt had not been engaged
00:28:59
on the passenger at the time of impact
00:29:03
her family members were adamant that she
00:29:06
was very very safety conscious she would
00:29:08
never get in a car without putting on
00:29:10
her seat belt it was second nature to
00:29:13
her and nobody had ever seen her in a
00:29:15
vehicle without her seatbelt on
00:29:19
for ian lawrence apparently slowly
00:29:21
regaining consciousness in a hospital
00:29:22
bed a new challenge what story could he
00:29:25
tell the police to explain the mounting
00:29:27
evidence against him
00:29:29
it was about four o'clock in the morning
00:29:31
when i had a conversation with the
00:29:34
collision
00:29:35
investigator
00:29:37
and as a result of everything that he'd
00:29:39
relayed to me i then made a decision
00:29:42
that mr lawrence would be arrested on
00:29:44
suspicion of murder while he was in
00:29:46
hospital it was quite clear at that time
00:29:48
that his injuries weren't
00:29:50
as severe as first portrayed to me and
00:29:54
he could really at any time discharged
00:29:56
himself and walked out of hospital so to
00:29:59
prevent that
00:30:00
and in line with what i knew um he was
00:30:03
arrested on submission of murder
00:30:05
he said he got no memory of it he was
00:30:07
unconscious
00:30:09
memory loss was a convenient claim at
00:30:11
the time but it didn't match the fact
00:30:13
that medical practitioners could find no
00:30:15
head injuries
00:30:16
it wasn't going to convince the police
00:30:18
he was then released from hospital later
00:30:21
that morning and then taken to a nearby
00:30:24
police station
00:30:26
he was assessed for suitability for
00:30:28
detention
00:30:29
booked into the police station and then
00:30:32
he was underwent a series of interviews
00:30:35
in his first interviews
00:30:36
mr lawrence claimed that he had a total
00:30:38
loss of memory um he didn't remember
00:30:41
anything after five o'clock and he
00:30:43
regained his memory he remembers being
00:30:45
in hospital at about nine o'clock that
00:30:47
night so there's a four hour gap there
00:30:49
where he he couldn't remember what had
00:30:52
happened he
00:30:53
underestimates all of the other people
00:30:55
around him and that's probably because
00:30:57
he's got a very high opinion of himself
00:31:00
and he he it doesn't uh occur to him
00:31:03
that anybody would see anything other
00:31:06
than an accident because he said so
00:31:09
ian lawrence was a prime suspect in the
00:31:11
murder of sally perks
00:31:13
who became sally lawrence but detectives
00:31:16
have to prove their case beyond doubt
00:31:18
and ian was sticking to his story
00:31:21
so ian
00:31:22
maintained throughout his police
00:31:24
interview his amnesia and therefore his
00:31:27
innocence
00:31:29
he
00:31:31
denied that there was any
00:31:33
anything wrong with the relationship
00:31:35
he denied that he'd intentionally
00:31:37
crashed his car
00:31:39
he denied that he'd unclipped sally's
00:31:42
seatbelt prior to the point of impact
00:31:46
facing a resolute ian lawrence
00:31:48
investigators needed a breakthrough it
00:31:50
would come in the shape of a little
00:31:51
known fact about cars
00:31:53
they have the motoring equivalent of the
00:31:55
black box found in aeroplanes and are
00:31:57
designed amongst other things to record
00:31:59
the details of an engine's performance
00:32:02
we found out that within the vehicle
00:32:03
there was a electronic control unit that
00:32:06
controlled the deployment of the airbags
00:32:09
vehicles were fitted with supplementary
00:32:11
restraint systems srs for short they
00:32:13
control everything the the airbags the
00:32:16
seat belts but in order to control those
00:32:18
it needs to decrypt some of the signals
00:32:20
that are going around the car but the
00:32:21
vehicle needs to make a decision when
00:32:23
it's going to deploy an airbag that's an
00:32:26
electronic control module often shorted
00:32:28
to an acm and it decides when the crash
00:32:31
is happening and decides when to deploy
00:32:33
the airbag lots of those acms record the
00:32:38
events of a crash so you end up with
00:32:40
windows snapshots of the information
00:32:42
that that black box had
00:32:44
at the time that the crash occurred
00:32:47
the so-called black box revealed the
00:32:49
lengths that ian went to to ensure
00:32:51
sally's death so that was recovered from
00:32:54
the wreck of the vehicle and we took
00:32:56
that to peugeot and a technician there
00:32:58
was able to read the data from that and
00:33:01
from the data held within that box we
00:33:03
ascertained that the passenger airbag
00:33:05
had been switched off
00:33:07
and had been switched off some six
00:33:09
cycles
00:33:10
prior
00:33:11
to the crash that
00:33:13
was was groundbreaking for us we could
00:33:16
actually prove that somebody had turned
00:33:18
that airbag off intentionally and that's
00:33:22
why it didn't deploy
00:33:25
in this collision we have a number of
00:33:27
different factors striking the tree on
00:33:30
the passenger side
00:33:31
the seat belt not being worn the air bag
00:33:33
being deactivated the lack of clear
00:33:36
braking marks as the vehicle left the
00:33:38
verge individually those pieces
00:33:41
aren't that significant but when you
00:33:43
start looking at all of those together
00:33:45
it starts to build quite a compelling
00:33:47
picture that something
00:33:49
unconventional happened in this
00:33:51
collision in order to disable the airbag
00:33:54
it takes a physical act you have to have
00:33:57
the key to the vehicle insert it into a
00:34:00
socket press down into the spring and
00:34:03
turn it physically
00:34:05
so it couldn't have been done
00:34:06
accidentally
00:34:08
it was an intentional act to turn that
00:34:11
airbag off
00:34:13
so detectives had the method but at that
00:34:15
stage they felt they didn't have the
00:34:16
motive
00:34:18
ian was maintaining that the couple were
00:34:20
in a close relationship
00:34:22
to him um they lived together they've
00:34:24
been living together for over 10 years
00:34:26
they had a 10 year old son they had a
00:34:29
normal family life and he didn't allude
00:34:32
to any problems with the relationship at
00:34:34
all so as part of our ongoing
00:34:36
investigation throughout that next day
00:34:38
we're in contact with sally's family
00:34:40
members through her sister
00:34:42
her daughters
00:34:44
and it becomes apparent that
00:34:46
the relationship had broken down between
00:34:49
ian and sully they'd been living
00:34:51
separate lives for for over a year
00:34:54
although living in the same house um the
00:34:56
relationship was
00:34:58
stressful and we we then later found out
00:35:01
that in fact sally had commenced another
00:35:04
relationship with another man um and had
00:35:07
been in that relationship for about 10
00:35:09
months
00:35:12
this coupled with the black box evidence
00:35:14
was enough for detective neil castle to
00:35:16
make his move
00:35:17
that on the face of it was fresh
00:35:19
evidence for us it was something that we
00:35:20
weren't aware of before wally and
00:35:22
lawrence had been in custody either made
00:35:24
policy decisions that was fresh evidence
00:35:27
sent officers out to further arrest
00:35:30
lawrence he was brought back into
00:35:31
custody a short interview and then we
00:35:34
presented those facts to the cps and
00:35:37
they gave us authorized to charge
00:35:39
murder
00:35:42
ian lawrence was arrested for murder but
00:35:44
he was maintaining his innocence and
00:35:46
police had to convince a jury that these
00:35:48
were not just coincidences or ian
00:35:50
lawrence might still walk free and he
00:35:53
was already planning what he might say
00:35:54
to get away with murder
00:35:57
he said he had a dream while he was in
00:35:58
prison and it came back to him in a
00:36:01
dream
00:36:02
saying that he had a medical condition
00:36:04
and he could prove that his leg spasm
00:36:19
ian lawrence had been charged with the
00:36:21
murder of his wife investigators were
00:36:23
painstakingly piecing together events
00:36:25
before the car crash that lawrence was
00:36:27
still claiming had been an accident
00:36:30
it emerged that central to what happened
00:36:32
that october evening was sally's planned
00:36:34
trip
00:36:35
sally was planning to
00:36:37
go away for the weekend on that saturday
00:36:40
evening and she had her overnight bag
00:36:42
packed and that would have been around
00:36:45
between five and six pm on that saturday
00:36:48
evening
00:36:49
why then had she got into the car with
00:36:51
ian
00:36:52
clearly she would not have left a
00:36:54
handbag there and keys and money
00:36:58
to get into his car this filthy car that
00:37:01
she'd never get into
00:37:03
unless she'd been forced
00:37:06
part of the defense evidence that the
00:37:08
jury had to consider was that lawrence
00:37:10
had crashed because of a leg spasm
00:37:13
ian lawrence eventually came up with a
00:37:16
version of events that while he was
00:37:18
driving along that road he had a seizure
00:37:21
in his leg which then
00:37:23
pressed down on the accelerator
00:37:24
increased speed of the vehicle he was
00:37:26
unable to move his leg
00:37:29
and engage the brake
00:37:31
but he did manage to get his foot off
00:37:33
the accelerator
00:37:35
but the vehicle glided and continued
00:37:37
towards the tree he didn't give any
00:37:39
explanation as to why the passenger side
00:37:42
took the full
00:37:44
full force of the impact
00:37:51
the prosecution evidence was put to the
00:37:53
jury they were told that sally known for
00:37:55
her safety consciousness had not been
00:37:57
wearing a seatbelt at the time of the
00:37:59
crash
00:38:01
ian appeared to be prepared for the
00:38:02
crash by adopting a brace position
00:38:05
that could be concluded from a mark left
00:38:08
on his chest by the watch that he was
00:38:09
wearing it was a large face watch and
00:38:13
visibly
00:38:14
it looked a similar size to the bruce on
00:38:17
his chest and the only way that that
00:38:18
could have got there is that if he and
00:38:20
lawrence had adopted a brace position by
00:38:23
folding his left arm right arm
00:38:26
under his seat belt and then on impact
00:38:28
the seat belt would have tensioned
00:38:31
and squeezed his arm and hence his watch
00:38:34
tightly into his chest causing that
00:38:36
bruise
00:38:37
he knew that he was going to strike that
00:38:40
tree
00:38:41
and yet he had peace of mind to adopt
00:38:44
that brace position he also must have
00:38:46
raised his legs up because there was no
00:38:48
impact and no injury to either of his
00:38:51
legs and yet the car was concertina
00:38:54
quite badly the car's controls had been
00:38:57
altered to prevent an airbag deploying a
00:39:00
job lawrence would have found
00:39:01
straightforward
00:39:03
turning passenger airbags off is quite
00:39:05
an easy thing to do it's a function
00:39:07
that's built into many vehicles because
00:39:09
if you wanted to fit a child seat to the
00:39:10
front of the car for example it's unsafe
00:39:13
to have an airbag that would go off in
00:39:14
those scenarios
00:39:16
most of them activated on a key so you
00:39:18
can just turn it off
00:39:20
on the side of the vehicle to stop the
00:39:21
airbag
00:39:22
activating in a crash laptop
00:39:25
at the scene of the crash he had
00:39:26
pretended to be unconscious
00:39:29
not too convincingly to the paramedics
00:39:31
who arrived even at a crime scene
00:39:34
those suspicions of the paramedic are
00:39:37
probably the thing
00:39:39
that sparked the investigation so ian
00:39:42
lawrence made another mistake there he
00:39:45
tried to fake being unconscious and he
00:39:48
clearly didn't know how to do that
00:39:51
and as investigators probed the
00:39:53
timelines of the lives of ian and sally
00:39:55
it became clear that they were far from
00:39:57
happy and that ian stood to gain
00:39:59
financially from sally's death
00:40:01
to do so however might not be possible
00:40:04
after their divorce was final the former
00:40:06
airline pilot had a deadline to meet he
00:40:10
decided that he was going to try
00:40:12
to murder sally and try and do that in a
00:40:15
way
00:40:16
which
00:40:17
as far as he could see would be the
00:40:19
perfect murder
00:40:21
and if he succeeded there was much to
00:40:23
gain
00:40:25
i know why he did it he did it for money
00:40:28
he he was a failed businessman he got
00:40:30
three small companies all of which were
00:40:32
struggling he murdered her on a saturday
00:40:34
the decree nice high was due two days
00:40:37
later on the monday
00:40:39
and um
00:40:40
sally had been very successful she had a
00:40:42
great job she was well paid she had a
00:40:45
lovely big house at that time was worth
00:40:47
i don't know
00:40:48
350 000 pounds something like that
00:40:52
and he had nothing
00:40:55
despite his careful planning and
00:40:57
continued claims of innocence the jury
00:40:59
unanimously found him guilty of the
00:41:01
murder of his wife
00:41:02
i had no misgiving thoughts however i
00:41:04
knew what the verdict was going to be
00:41:06
everybody cheered at the time i didn't
00:41:09
ian lawrence made one last desperate bid
00:41:11
to escape justice he appealed offering
00:41:14
evidence of an excuse that he had raised
00:41:16
in court during his trial he claimed to
00:41:19
have multiple sclerosis which had caused
00:41:21
a spasm in his leg so that he had
00:41:23
unwillingly pushed down hard on the
00:41:25
car's accelerator
00:41:27
i mean it was just so pathetic you know
00:41:30
there was nothing wrong with the
00:41:32
steering wheel even if what
00:41:35
ian lawrence had said about having a leg
00:41:37
spasm were true he could still have
00:41:39
steered the car away from the tree but
00:41:42
what they found in the appeal was that
00:41:45
his leg spasm would not have caused
00:41:48
the accident as it happened
00:41:51
he got life with a minimum of 24 years
00:41:56
the judge put three years extra on for
00:41:59
it being for money
00:42:01
he put another three years on
00:42:03
for
00:42:04
him using the car as a weapon to kill
00:42:08
her and then he put another three years
00:42:10
on because it was premeditated
00:42:17
the couple had met and appeared the
00:42:19
perfect match on a lavish wedding day
00:42:21
they had begun their own family before
00:42:24
ian's world disintegrated around him
00:42:26
leaving him bitter
00:42:28
angry eventually he had killed his wife
00:42:32
but justice had been done
00:42:35
so everything we do as police officers
00:42:39
is for the families of the victims and
00:42:41
it's a great feeling when you can look
00:42:43
the family in the eye and you know that
00:42:45
you've done you and your team have done
00:42:47
everything you can to
00:42:49
secure and preserve the evidence to then
00:42:52
put a case together presented at court
00:42:54
and convince the jury that that person
00:42:57
was guilty of that offence and that's
00:42:59
what we did
00:43:00
ian lawrence will not be eligible for
00:43:02
parole until 2037.
00:43:04
sally was 47 when she died and was
00:43:07
described in court as inspirational
00:43:09
caring and kind
00:43:14
[Music]
00:44:02
you
